The Wheatley Community Center is in need of a new roof on the back part of the building. This will be an expensive project due to the size and having to remove the two layers of old shingles. We are very grateful for the donations we have received to help with this project, but more money is needed.

The summer concert series held each year at Elk Creek Winery will kick off May 28 with a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Beach Boys.

The concert series, which takes place at Elk Creek Winery’s outdoor amphitheater, has been bringing top musical acts to Owen County for the past three years, including country artist Sara Evans, legendary Motown group The Temptations, and blues guitarist Buddy Guy.

Owner of the Elk Creek Winery, Curtis Sigretto, said finding acts for the concert series is no easy task.

One Owen County High School girl has been given the chance to show her love of horses and her artistic talents to thousands of people who will pass through the International Museum of the Horse this spring.

Felisha Riddle, a 16-year-old sophomore student in Bethany Taylor’s art class, was one of 25 students in Kentucky chosen to receive a 17-inch fiberglass horse to decorate for the “Desert Treasures, the Arabian Horse” art competition, sponsored by the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park.

A local author hopes to shed some light on Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her first novel, “Jesus My Son: Mary’s Journal of Jesus’ Early Life.”

Owen County native Mary Bailey said the focus of this book is on Mary as a loving and caring mother to her son Jesus.

“I’ve done a lot of research on Mary’s life and I wanted to capture what she, as a mother, would go through,” Bailey said. “I think this approach will appeal to a lot of people because so little is really known about her day-to-day life.”

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. The weather was great, especially Good Friday and Sunday. Saturday was a little windy but later turned out to be an OK day as well. I did get a chance to enjoy some of it on Friday at least. As I mentioned last week, Lee was scheduled for surgery on Friday. We ended up having to be there at 5:30, so needless to say, there was no sleeping in for me that day. That’s OK. At least everything went well for him and I am happy for that. Glad I was able to go with him.

A small nonprofit in a big-name resort turned international recognition into successful fund-raising with the 2009 Vail Home Raffle. The Vail Academy offered a million-dollar vacation home as the top prize in a raffle dedicated to raising money for a small kindergarten-eighth grade school tucked in the Rocky Mountains.

The minimum number of tickets needed to give away the home as the prize was not reached, but the alternative cash grand prize was over $125,000.

Owenton native Karen Hunnicutt was ecstatic when she won the grand prize drawing on New Year’s Eve.

The 114th Kentucky Society Daughters of the American Revolution State Conference was held March 26-28 at the Hilton Downtown Lexington Hotel.

Peggy Trinkle, regent of the John Guill Chapter, attended the conference as a voting member and to assist in preparations for the conference.

On Saturday, the John Guill Chapter’s DAR Good Citizen, Derek Ellis, received KSDAR’s Fifth District DAR Good Citizen Award. DAR Good Citizens have demonstrated the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism in their communities.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced the Adopt-a-Highway Spring Clean Week will be held through Friday across the commonwealth.

About 1,100 groups participate in Kentucky’s Adopt-a-Highway program, which was established in 1988. Volunteers clean approximately 8,800 miles of roadside annually, setting an example of responsible environmental stewardship.

Currently, only about 6 percent of eligible Owen County highways are adopted.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t decorate or give parties on this day but it always gives me a good feeling to know the Irish are being recognized for their contribution to the settling of this country.

Each year, the various chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution sponsor a DAR Good Citizen contest for high-school seniors.

The senior selected as “DAR Good Citizen” must have demonstrated the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism.

With the assistance of the Owen County High School, the John Guill DAR Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is proud to announce Derek S. Ellis has been chosen to receive the Chapter’s 2010 DAR Good Citizen Award.